070006 VU Women's and Gender History - Women and the Holocaust: a Critical Gender History (2020W)

Aims:

Learning the history of a European genocide; applying the category of gender in Holocaust studies; methodology and ethics of writing a history of gender and sexuality of the Holocaust

Contents:

How did the Holocaust change the gender roles of affected men and women, and how were women and men relevant for the Holocaust? This course follows two goals: First, it will introduce students to Nazi Germany’s project to systematically murder Europe’s Jews and other minorities during the Second World War. Second, the seminar shows how distinct aspects of this genocide can be examined through the lense of gender and sexuality history. The course introduces students to classic and newer scholarship on gender and sexuality in the Holocaust, while at the same time presenting a history of the Holocaust and divergent perspectives of victims, perpetrators, and bystanders. We will study the effect of historical events on men and women both as individuals and as groups. Moreover, we will discuss factors of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, class, and generation, focusing on the Holocaust as an instance of intersectionality. This course also analyzes how and why violence and trauma are narrated and represented artistically in gendered tropes. Finally, this course provides a friendly yet challenging forum for independent thinking, discussing, and analytic reading and writing.

The course combines close work with scholarly literature and published sources, introducing students to the historiographic themes over the course of time. Make sure you read and think about the assigned readings before each class meeting in order to participate in the discussion. The course will consist of various readings, discussions, lectures, presentations, films, and written assignments. This is an upper-level seminar. Previous knowledge of modern European history/studies is preferred but not necessary; I will provide a short introduction for each topic.

Methods:

Short introductory lecture; student presentations; intensive seminar disussion.